Brad Sinko pictured here
with apprentice cheesemaker
Amir Rosenblatt

Brad Sinko's day begins before dawn. Traveling by ferry from his home in Port Orchard, Washington, Brad opens the doors to the kitchen of Beecher's Handmade Cheese before 6:00 AM to begin the task of making cheese. The milk truck from the farm arrives in an hour, but before it does the kitchen must be sanitized, equipment calibrated, cultures tested, and record keeping prepared for the long day ahead. Brad is one of the few people still practicing the centuries-old craft of open vat cheesemaking, merging the art of the past with 21st century know-how.

Brad is a rare combination of skilled artisan and successful businessman with a keen understanding of the entire cheesemaking operation from start to finish. Brad credits this breadth of knowledge to his father, who managed Bandon Creamery in Oregon — a mid-sized operation making premium cheese. After receiving his degree in microbiology from Oregon State University, Brad went to work for his father at Bandon.

Despite his degree and previous experience managing a small dairy, Brad's father had him start at the bottom. From running the cash register and working in the packaging department, to negotiating milk prices and handling distribution, Brad worked in every single department at Bandon, all the while learning the secrets of making great cheese. The tutorial paid off. By 1995 he was successfully managing the entire operation, helping Bandon win a second place ribbon in a North American cheese competition during his tenure.

Not long after he left Bandon, Brad spent two months in Guatemala at the request of a cheesemaker wanting to improve his operation. Upgrading sanitation alone posed a major challenge. By the time Brad was finished, the cheesemaker was not only making a safe cheese, but also a more flavorful and consistent cheddar. Brad's services to upgrade cheesemaking standards have also been requested in countries of the former Soviet Union — something he hopes to do in the future. But soon after his return from Guatemala, Brad was presented with an intriguing new opportunity.

Cheesemaking is a family business for the Sinko's. In addition to his father's experience, Brad's grandfather was a dairyman. It was exactly this family tradition that made him attractive to Kurt Dammeier, the owner of Beecher's Handmade Cheese, who was looking for a cheesemaker. Part of a family business tradition himself, Kurt felt that Brad's cheesemaking heritage created a cultural fit for what he hoped to accomplish at Beecher's. In addition to a desire to make high quality artisan cheese in classic American varieties, the two men found common ground in their passion for pure, clean, all-natural food.

Although Kurt and Brad collaborate, Kurt knows where to draw the line. Brad is the cheesemaker, and Kurt runs the business. The name on the door is Beecher's, but Brad's influence is plainly evident — from the production equipment, every inch of which he designed, to the finished cheeses. It works well for everyone. Brad provides Beecher's with the skill and expertise they need, and Beecher's gives Brad a platform to create unique, premium cheeses of his own design.

As you watch Brad making cheese, you see a man with a keen eye for detail. Everything about the cheesemaking process is managed to his specifications beginning with the milk. Brad wanted the milk for Beecher's cheese to contain approximately 4% butterfat. The cows of the local, single herd used by Beecher's were already family-owned, healthy and raised without additional growth hormones to produce milk of the desired purity; but the butterfat content was a bit low. Together with farmer, Brad worked to raise the level of butterfat in the milk and maintain it at a consistent level by adding some Jersey cows to the thriving Holsteins.

Brad is obviously fond of manipulating microbes to create premium products, having also owned and operated a microbrewery for five years. On any given day he'll create something new in the testing vat, sometimes improving already high-quality Beecher's products or experimenting with new cheeses.

Brad takes great pleasure in the fact that making great cheese demands a grasp of both art and science. Science plays a major role in his first priority in cheesemaking — to make a product that is safe to eat. To that end he uses technology to test the milk and the cheese, and keeps the kitchen and equipment scrupulously clean. As an artist, he strives to make a superior cheese — a full-flavored and pure product made the old-fashioned way.

To assist him at Beecher's, Brad is training apprentice cheesemakers in the fine craft of making great cheese. Each day their work is a living museum for fascinated onlookers at Beecher's. Cheesemaking is strenuous work from stirring the curds to hoisting the 50-pound hoops (molds) in which the cheeses begin the aging process. About seven hours after the milk truck arrived that morning, the cheesemaking process concludes. Then the kitchen is cleaned from top to bottom according to Brad's exacting standards, and equipment is prepared for the next day. By the time Brad boards the ferry for home, he has worked a ten-hour day.

Despite the demanding job of making cheese, Brad still finds time to indulge his other passion — fishing for Northwest steelhead salmon. A skilled craftsman beyond cheesemaking, Brad makes his own lures. When asked if he sees similarities between fishing and making cheese Brad is quick to answer. He speaks reverently of "reading" the water when he's fishing, sensing where the fish might be. It's much the same, he says, as reading a vat of fresh milk — sensing its progress, coaxing the transformation of milk to artisan cheese — all the while listening to instincts nurtured from year of experience.